


A Light in the Darkness

by lady_needless_litany



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Allusion to Sabine Wren/Star Wars: Rebels, Don't copy to another site, F/F, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Nightmares, Post-TLJ, Sharing a Bed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-22
Updated: 2019-08-22
Packaged: 2020-09-24 07:17:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,043
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20354533
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lady_needless_litany/pseuds/lady_needless_litany
Summary: Rey is no stranger to hardships, but sleep has always been a respite. When even that is destroyed, she turns to Rose for help.





	A Light in the Darkness

In amongst the abandonment and hardships and terrible deprivation of her childhood - things which no child should have to face - nightmares were the one thing that Rey had been spared. She had always been thankful for that. On Jakku, everything was precious; the simple act of sleeping was something to be grateful for, because exhaustion could quickly become an inescapable weakness. On Jakku, you couldn't afford weakness. Sooner or later, something or someone would exploit that weakness, either accidentally or for their own gain, and then you would wind up utterly destitute or, more likely, dead. Rey had seen it with her own eyes - nightmares turning shadows into monsters and young children into quivering messes that Unkar Plutt rapidly wrote off, adults whose groggy brains meant limbs caught in savage machinery, older people whose sleep-deprived delirium persuaded them to walk into the desert and never return. There was no doubt that Rey had survived, at least in part, because she had rarely dreamt of anything exceptional.

It seemed that that blessing had not followed her into adulthood. Her visions on Ahch-To had, it seemed, opened the floodgates. She had had one or two stray nightmares before that, but the experience was still new to her. A simple lack of familiarity, therefore, added to her confusion when she was catapulted from a dreamworld to reality, jerking unceremoniously into wakefulness.

That night, she awoke to an ascetic, box-like room with grey permacrete walls. It was relatively small, holding only a modest cupboard and a compact cot. The only remarkable thing about the place was the odd motif on one wall - a shape similar to the old symbol of the Rebellion, but with details that alluded to the figure of a bird. Perhaps it was an alternate logo from the very beginning of the movement, given the faded nature of the paint. She had resolved to ask Poe about it, though she'd yet to get around to it.

It certainly wasn't foremost in her mind at that point. Her mind was swamped panic, one hand reaching out, while the other drew the bedsheets to her protectively. It was only when she felt the cold metal of the blaster, unconsciously Force-summoned, that she began to rationalise.

_ Kriff _ , she breathed. Slowly, she released the blaster and listened as her heartbeats began to normalise.  _ It's fine, it's fine. It wasn't real. _

Of course, the problem was that she couldn't be sure. It could be a figment of her imagination, but it could equally be a premonition. A warning. Even a memory, hers or someone else's, or some other gift from the Force.

There was no one single image that she could attach to her fear: aside from a directionless crimson glow, she couldn't recall anything visual about her dream. In the background, there had been a persistent buzz. And against her cheek, she'd felt a stripe of heat, the way she had in the forests of Takodana. As such, she didn't doubt that it had been about Kylo Ren, though she didn't remember if she'd seen his face or heard his voice.

Either way, she felt invaded. The space around her was permeated, at least in her mind, by his presence.

She knew that sleep, therefore, would prove elusive. But when she checked the time and discovered that it was still the middle of the night - at least on the moon and crumbling base that Leia had directed them to - she realised that she had no real alternative. With so few personnel, free time was running at a premium, so she couldn't pick and choose her naptimes. More crucially, the remnants of the Resistance needed everyone at their best if they had any hope of survival.

What to do? Her mind probed the possibilities.

Finding someone that she trusted was probably the best option; it might calm her mind and body enough to rest. The question was who.

She knew that Finn didn't struggle with sleep -  _ I was raised to sleep on a schedule, unless we were on a mission with exceptional circumstances _ he'd explained once,  _ so my mind and body are used to it _ \- so he was unlikely to be awake. He wouldn't mind her waking him up, but she was still reluctant to disturb him.

Poe was the other obvious option. Although they'd only just met, she instinctively trusted him, especially given his and Finn's relationship. He also seemed like the kind of person that might coincidentally be awake at such an hour. Even as she had that thought, though, she was aware that she had no idea where his quarters were.

That left Rose Tico. Again, Rey had only just met her, but she seemed like a decent person. One that might be willing to help. And as one of the Resistance's few remaining engineers, it was likely that she'd still be in the hangar, trying to patch up the Falcon or fix the few rickety droids that had been stored dormant in the base.

Decision made, Rey climbed out of bed. She slept clothed, a habit borne of many years of uncertainty, so all she had to do was pull on a pair of shoes. 

Carefully, she closed the door behind her and set off down the corridor. Even though it was a small base, they had nowhere near enough people to fill it; instead, they rattled around it, trying to ignore the emptiness and the loss that the space represented. It was eerily still and silent as Rey navigated the dimly lit passages that took her to the hangar.

When she got there, it was immediately clear that Rose was the only one there. She had set herself up in one corner, workspace strewn with various tools and odds and ends. Once or twice, when Rey hadn't been focused on training her more mystical skills, she came down and helped her there.

"Kark," Rose muttered, voice carrying across the space. She hadn't noticed Rey; she was focused intently on the central computer of a tactical droid. It was proving particularly tricky.

Rey called out to her. "Rose!"

The woman practically leapt into the air. "Force! You frightened me."

She couldn't help laughing. "Sorry, I didn't mean to. I just came to talk to you."

Immediately, Rose's demeanour changed. She was suddenly ready for action, ready to turn her hand to whatever was needed; that was an indicator of how tense their whole situation was. "Oh?"

"Don't worry," Rey reassured her. "It's nothing serious. Just nightmares."

Rose relaxed again. "I don't know," she responded, thoughtfully tapping one finger against her chin. "Nightmares can be a pretty serious business."

Rey made a noncommittal noise.

Detecting Rey's reticence - which could stem from self-self-consciousness, Rose thought - she went back to her tinkering. "Alright, then. What was it about?" 

As predicted, Rey took the opening. "I'm not sure. It was one of those vague ones."

"Yeah, but what do you actually remember?" she pressed.

"Kylo," she answered. It was a difficult thing to admit, given the sense of betrayal that lurked under the surface of her thoughts.

"Well, no one can blame you for being scared of him," she said, matter-of-factly, as she began to tighten a screw. There was a weighty truth to her words - Kylo Ren was probably their greatest threat. A threat that could be realised all too soon.

"But I'm not supposed to be scared of him." Rey's eyes skittered around the room, a tell-tale sign of discomfort. "Jedi aren't, well, Jedi-"

Seeing Rey's awkwardness, Rose interrupted her without ceremony. "The Jedi aren't here. We're here; they're not. They never had to deal with this."

"Not, but-" Rey was growing visibly more conflicted with herself. "They had self-control. They wouldn't have had stupid things like nightmares, like I do."

"I wouldn't be so sure." At Rey's caught-off-guard expression, she continued and explained. "Nightmares are pretty normal, especially if you're stressed. My sister, Paige, often got nightmares when she was worried about something."

"Oh," Rey replied plainly. 

When it came to reading and interacting with other people, Rey was often somewhat clumsy. She certainly wasn't sure how to approach the topic of Rose's sister, since it was clear that the other woman was still grieving deeply. It suddenly occurred to her that it was probably her grief, not just her work, that prompted Rose to work such long hours. For personal experience, she knew that the best way to avoid unwanted thoughts was to bury your head in work and collapse into bed, exhausted, when yu ran out of energy.

Rose steadfastly avoided eye-contact. "Yeah. Sometimes it meant that she couldn't sleep for a couple of days in a row, so she'd end up crawling into my bed. She said that having company was the only thing that stopped them."

"Maybe I should try it," Rey suggested, half serious, half simply needing something to fill the conversational gap. The moment she said it, she cursed herself.  _ There's no way that was the right thing to say. _

But Rose surprised her.

"My door's always open," she said. It was awkward, but there was an undeniable kindness to it. "Not literally," she added hastily. "Because of security. But if you ever need anything... well, you get the picture."

Rey was genuinely touched. "Thank you. You might regret it, though - I might take you up on that!"

That conversation ended there, abruptly, as Rose's droid bleeped and revived itself. But the offer lingered on in Rey's mind, even when she returned to her own room and fell, exhausted, into a blank stupor several hours later.

The next night, at least the start of it, played out similarly. Rey awoke, sweating, from another shapeless nightmare and knew that sleep would not return to her easily.

This time, though, she already had a plan of action. Earlier on, Rose had mentioned that she was tired, that she didn't plan to work late. Rey hoped that would mean she'd be in her assigned quarters.

Tentatively, she knocked on the door. "Rose?"

"Door's unlocked," came the sleepy reply.

Rey took that as an invitation, pushing the door open.

The room was nearly identical to Rey's, aside from the lack of wall decor. Rose was tucked up in bed, having been clearly awoken by her arrival. There was, understandably, faint evidence of concern written across her features, found in the questioning tilt of her head and the slight purse of her lips.

"What's up?"

"I can't sleep again. So-" Rey bit her lip. "So I was wondering if I could, well, stay here awhile."

She nodded. "Of course. I offered, didn't I?"

At her easy acceptance, Rey felt a surge of newfound affection.

"What should I..." Rey didn't finish her sentence, unsure of how to phrase it. "Where..."

Rose, on the other hand, didn't seem to be so constrained. She patted the bed next to her and shifted aside, wiggling this way and that, to make room for her. "Come on."

Rey crossed the room and sat on the edge of the bed. At an impatient sound from Rose, she slowly - almost gingerly - lowered herself onto the mattress until she was fully laid down, staring up at the ceiling. The bed beneath her had been warmed by body heat, a sharp contrast to the chilly, stagnant air.

"Is this okay?" she asked, hyper-aware of Rose's presence.

"It's fine," she replied. "And hopefully you'll get some sleep this way."

They said no more, Rose swiftly resuccumbing to the succour of sleep. Rey didn't drop off quite as quickly, mind occupied by her dream and by her new predicament. It was somewhat strange, lying in bed with a total stranger. Well, not a total stranger; they'd only known each other for a week, but near-death experiences had a habit of bringing people together.

The bed was not, by any standards, particularly large, so Rey was aware of Rose's every breath and infinitesimal movement, even though they weren't quite touching. Still, it was far more comforting that the emptiness of her own room and the thoughts of darkness and fear soon faded into nothingness. After that, it was a matter of minutes before her breathing slowed and she slipped into the realms of sleep, at last undisturbed.


End file.
